His Only Death
by AHeartForStories
Summary: HICCUP WHUMP. Minor major character death. After all of Hiccup's close encounters, after all the times Hiccup survived that which should've killed him, that he would live a long life despite everything seemed like a given.


_This fic was actually part of a multichaptered fic, but I felt like this chapter, if edited a little, could be its own thing as well. So have this._

_Also, I'm a slut for mysterious revivals, okay? And I am disappointed with the lack of revival fics in the Httyd fandom. It's honestly a surprise I haven't filled my account only with fanfics of characters being revived by some mysterious force._

* * *

**His Only Death: Snippet**

Freedom and death came from the ocean.

For two whole weeks Hiccup had been stuck on that ship.

Far away from Toothless, from family and from Berk, the young Chief had spend the past fourteen days surrounded by nothing but enemies of his tribe on a single boat in the middle of the Barbaric Ocean.

An ambush had been staged on an island Hiccup once thought belonged to allies. He'd gone there with a handful of Berk's best, Snotlout and Eret included, to sign a peace treaty like his father had done for decades before him. He'd gone there without dragons to show his trust and goodwill.

Astrid, meanwhile, kept watch over their home as acting Chief in his stead with the rest of the Dragon Riders.

Their group had been ambushed the same night they'd arrived. When most of them were drunk from the feast thrown in their honour, their fighting spirit only lasted for so long and there were too many for Hiccup, one of the few still remaining sober, to take on alone.

Though smart and skilled with a sword, he hadn't been able to put up much of a fight.

The Berkians send home with the longboat they travelled all this way on and a message, their Chief shipped off with the men of a different tribe, but who were also a part of the surprise attack.

It was a conspiracy apparently. Two or three tribes had conspired together to separate Berk from their famous "Dragon Chief" for reasons unknown.

Was it mistrust? Did they hold the same motive as Alvin the Treacherous once did when he was a boy?

Hiccup wasn't sure why or how many were involved yet.

Without food, with barely any water, exposed to the salty air and the surprisingly scorching sun, he found he could hardly think at all.

This entire time he'd been chained outside on the deck by his wrists, left to face the elements with no relief. His clothes, though torn from the battle, still did their job and kept the cold of the Archipelago out. But all day in the sun, sweat made sure it clung to him.

Perhaps their plan all along was to get rid of him. They cared little for his health and well-being to prove otherwise.

During these endlessly long weeks, he'd been spat on, kicked, beaten, dragged by the hair, insulted, degraded, starved... The list was much longer than Hiccup would ever admit to any of his friends and certainly not to his mother or Gobber. And he was pretty sure the fight in which he'd been captured had left him with a dislocated shoulder and bruised ribs.

Something wasn't quite right with his right forearm either. It had been hit by a mace. His armbrace had been lost before it could protect that limb.

Physically, Hiccup was at the end of his rope. Mentally and emotionally, he still held out hope to hear the shrill cry of his Night Fury before raining down fire and death on this ship and these men. But they, too, were not far behind.

It shouldn't take much longer now. The longboat must have returned days ago, the Dragon Riders must be on their way. Dragons were so much faster than ships.

He wanted to be home. He was exhausted.

His eyes were closed. His skin was so burned from the sun, his lips were dry.

"Hey, Runt."

A kick to his ribs left him breathless and send him to the floor, but Hiccup didn't make a single sound or move besides his gasps for air. There was no more fight left in his body. He was pretty sure he'd lost weight already. He'd been surviving solely on water.

And his ribs, did one of them crack just then? He wasn't sure, but the pain was there all the same. They've been through a lot of abuse, he wouldn't be surprised if they were, at the very least, terribly bruised.

Words were being said, but Hiccup teetered on the line between conscious- and unconsciousness. There was a haze over his mind, a thick mist. He understood nothing.

"Hey, RUNT!"

Though Hiccup's mind was dazed and cloudy, whoever was talking managed to draw his attention again with a devastating kick to the groin, followed by one more to the face.

It hurt so bad. Whines and whimpers were the first sounds Hiccup's parched throat made in hours and even those hurt. His lip was now split and blood came trickling out of his nose. Existence was pain. The tears that sprung into his eyes were of what little fluid left in him.

He wanted to glare up to his captors, spit his spilt blood in their faces and make them call him by his real name.

It was a first, but Hiccup missed hearing his own name.

Spirit with a dying fire, body well past drained, there was little he could do besides stare up at the three people gathered around him, curled up onto his side with his legs pressed firmly together.

They were talking, he didn't understand a word they were saying. He saw their lips move, but nothing of what they said registered properly in his mind. To him, from this distance, they were nonsensical sounds.

And his eyes were slipping closed again.

"Hey. Hey!"

Someone grabbed him by his ruined tunic, his vest missing, and lifted him up, but his aching form remained limp in his hold. The strength to stand was lost to him.

His joints screamed, they were stiff from the lack of movement. Everything screamed. The friction of the chains around his chafed wrists made his naked skin burn.

He saw angry grey eyes and then his own drooped once more.

It was so hard to stay awake. He realized he didn't want to fight it either.

"Hey! Hey!" Someone kept shouting, apparently trying really hard to be heard, but they sounded so far away.

"Shit, you think he's dying?" But at least now, because of their close proximity, Hiccup could somewhat make out what they were saying.

"Did the Chief say anything about keeping the Dragon Runt alive?" A different voice, but still male.

"No, he didn't." Another. By now Hiccup felt like it weren't just the three of them surrounding him anymore. The original number of the crew escaped him, but there were so many faceless things around him.

"So I guess," It was the first one who began once more, the same one who'd been kicking him. The places hit were still in pain.

"If we were to throw him overboard, it wouldn't matter much, would it?" Hiccup tried to open his eyes, he wanted to look them in the eye and tell them that he wasn't dying on that ship, but once more his will burned brighter than the fire of his physical being and it, too, was waning.

What was the point of being stubborn, if he was imprisoned in his own unmoving body?

"Toothless..." The Night Fury's name rolled off his tongue, but it was barely audible even to himself. It was softer than a whisper.

"What do we tell the Chief?"

"He fought back. The idiot threw himself overboard trying to reach his fellows and drowned."

Hiccup couldn't follow the rest of the conversation.

He slipped, he fell unconscious.

And then he fell for real.

Hiccup never felt the wood of the ship or chains be released, but the salty water of the ocean taking him into its freezing cold embrace and filling his nostrils and lungs cruelly ripped him out of the comforting darkness he'd only spend the past few moments in.

The chill was too harsh on skin reddened by the sun.

His mind clearer than it had been in hours, an instinct to survive no matter what kicked in. One final act to save himself.

Wrists still bound, metal leg gone, ignoring the shouts for rest, Hiccup tried and tried to breach the surface.

He couldn't even reach it.

Legs kicking, arms flailing, hands grabbing, but he was tired and he wasn't getting very far. He wasn't getting anywhere at all. Instead of rising higher, he sank deeper and deeper. Try as he might, Hiccup could not reach the surface of the water.

Fresh air wasn't his to have, the sun he'd disliked for the past fourteen days told him a mournful goodbye and everything that hurt began to hurt even more.

His lungs burned. His eyes burned. His heart yearned.

For Toothless, for Astrid, for his mother, for dad.

After all this time, after all his close encounters, water would be his grave in the end.

It became dark, his movements ceased. Surrounded by the enclosing shadows of the deep ocean and all that lived within, his body stopped moving for the last time and he continued his descend.

It was calm, peaceful, once the pain eventually stopped.

* * *

A tearful reunion was found on the shores.

And it was Toothless who found him.

After the Hooligan longboat returned to Berk, it were a panicked Snotlout and a distressed Eret who told the rest of the Dragon Riders, Valka, Gobber and the village what had happened to their Chief of only three years.

It was difficult to make sense of what they were trying to tell them, even Eret had a hard time keeping his sanity. The duty to protect the Dragon Rider, even if it cost him his life, had been his since Hiccup had first taken up the mantle at the much too young age of twenty. And he'd failed miserably.

But sense was made of their jumbled words and contradicting stories. The lost details mattered little. What truly mattered was that Hiccup had been captured, there was a conspiracy and the ambush had taken place a week prior to their return.

A rescue was urgent and nobody had any idea where the ship holding Hiccup hostage had gone to.

But Toothless was given his automatic tailfin, allowing him to search independently, and off he went.

He refused to wait for the other Dragons and their Riders. Hiccup needed him. He wasn't about to be slowed down by careful planning and preparing.

The ocean would keep him fed, water he could find on other islands, local dragons could tell him where they'd last seen a certain known human dragon, scents he knew by memory would lead him straight to Hiccup. He needed nothing else.

It was a Scauldron, local to the area, that ended up telling him that someone had washed ashore on an island almost an hour by flight away.

Toothless wasted no time.

He knew Hiccup never should've left without him. He also knew why his Rider had left without him, but as noble as his intentions were, something inside of Toothless had always told him this would go horribly wrong.

He hated how his protective nature was once again in the right.

But Hiccup had to be close now. He's been searching for days, Hiccup should be close.

Then Toothless arrived at the island the Scauldron told him about and he saw something lying on the beach, just like he'd said.

Gliding downwards, the closer he came, the stiller his heart became.

That lanky figure he could recognize from anywhere.

Hiccup.

With a worried roar Toothless folded his wings and fell down the rest of the way, still landing gracefully on his feet.

Hiccup, his beloved Rider, lied there in the sand. Head turned away from him, arms to his side, clothes torn, leg gone, hair dry and body still wet from his hands down due to the calm waves washing over him.

And pale. So ghostly pale.

Despite being right next to him, Toothless almost didn't dare touch him. He was afraid of what he might find.

But the Night Fury forced himself to move. He needed to know. Hesitantly, with legs filled with lead, he stood over him.

And found Hiccup's eyes to be closed. If anything, he looked quite calm. Not angry, not sad, nor agonized.

At least he wasn't staring at nothing.

Carefully lifting up a paw, Toothless nudged his Rider's shoulder and felt an unpleasant chill run up his spine from how freezing cold the body before him felt.

The distressing realization that this was exactly what was lying on the sand in front of him nearly made Toothless lose it.

But no, that was impossible. This was Hiccup and he was a fighter.

And yet, besides the breeze of the beach blowing through his hair, there was no movement.

Deciding that he needed to be more daring, Toothless rumbled a greeting and began nudging his Rider's back, really pushing his snout and the flat top of his head into him. He tried not to let the deathly chill get to him.

It wasn't his intention to roll Hiccup onto his back, but it was what ended up happening. At least he wasn't stiff yet. Dead bodies, real dead bodies, they grew stiff after some time.

Standing over him, like he'd done countless of times before while they playfought, Toothless held his face right in front of his Rider's.

His heart shattered, his sprinting thoughts halted, when he noticed no warm breaths of life coming from his nose or his parted lips. No breaths at all.

Hiccup wasn't breathing.

He was freezing and he wasn't breathing.

Pressing an earfin to his chest like he'd seen Vikings do to their fallen companions before, he listened desperately for a heartbeat, no matter how soft.

And found nothing but silence.

Toothless crashed.

Losing all feeling in his body, his limbs caving in beneath him, heart bleeding, he crashed into the sand next to his Rider and crooned mournfully over the loss of his soulmate.

Gone. His Hiccup, his clever boy, was gone.

He should've noticed.

He should've noticed.

He had noticed.

There was a gaping hole in his chest and mind. It's been there for days, but he'd ignored it, telling himself it was worry and fright slowing him down.

But what if it had been his Rider leaving this world? Though it should've been impossible, Toothless had always known he'd feel it one day. He and Hiccup were just too inexplicably close not too.

He never could've imagined that day would come so soon.

Closing his eyes, he settled his head and nearest foreleg on Hiccup's torso, still crying. Each time his lungs ran out of breath, he'd start over. He hoped Hiccup could hear him wherever he was now. He knew Vikings believed in Valhalla.

He didn't have the strength or the will to do much else.

If he were to mysteriously perish right here by his side, he would be thankful.

He wanted to be up there in the golden halls with him, not here on Midgard without him.

There were dragons.

Tiny Terrible Terrors who caught sight of them and came over to see what was wrong with the mighty Night Fury that seemed to be mourning a human. Proud Monstrous Nightmares who saw it their duty to see what was the matter. Kind Gronckles who simply wanted to lend a hand to the distressed being. Toothless chased them all away. Even the tiny crabs living on the beach, they risked death by plasma blast just for coming too close.

It was a maddening sight, but even in death Toothless would protect Hiccup.

Every creature that dared to come, it enraged him further.

Hiccup had been hurt. Toothless didn't know by who or how, but he would be hurt no more.

Roaring, firing, intimidation, he used all he could. Growing angrier and angrier until he crashed down once more with a long and pained roar. Finally, he was alone with Hiccup again. Hours must've passed by already. They were both an eternity and yet much too short to have been real.

The unfamiliar dragons who inhabited this island, they kept their distance at long last. That is all Toothless wanted.

To be left alone.

With a paw he held Hiccup closer to himself, gently, carefully, he barely moved him. He needed him close.

And then.

A noise.

It was a wheezing sound, new, recent. Just soft enough to be blamed on a broken mind's imagination, but as a Night Fury Toothless possessed sensitive hearing.

And his ears picked it up from within his Rider's chest.

It wasn't there before and entire hours had passed since his arrival. Midday had already turned to midnight.

And now somebody or something must be playing tricks on him, because it sounded like Hiccup was breathing.

Lifting his head up, heaving his weighty physique up, Toothless looked down and saw Hiccup gazing back at him.

Still blueishly pale, brows knitted together, purple lips trembling, Hiccup stared back him through grey, dead eyes. They looked almost like that of a felled fish.

A corpse's eyes. And they were filled with such intense suffering.

Though having absolutely no idea what was going on, Toothless spurred himself into action and rubbed his cheek against Hiccup's.

Sharing his warmth was all he could think about.

He noticed the human's fingers twitching as if he wanted to move, but couldn't. He heard scared whimpers and pained moans. Soft, but heartbreaking nonetheless.

Neither knew what was going on. Hiccup was confused, he was in pain, he was scared. And all Toothless could do was be there for him.

Lying down next to him, Toothless recreated his previous position, draconic head and foreleg on human torso. He hoped Hiccup knew he was telling him "I'm here. I'm right here."

Perking an earfin and pressing it to his chest, he also heard the soft thumping of a heartbeat that wasn't there before either.

And he was no longer unnervingly still. Hiccup couldn't move, that much was clear to the Night Fury, but now he trembled so awfully.

Toothless wasn't sure how long it would take for the other Dragon Riders to find them, he wasn't sure of a lot of things. Like how his Viking could be dead for hours one moment and then alive the next.

But until the others came, he'd keep Hiccup safe. He couldn't just fly them home, Fishlegs needed to take a look at him first, lest he loses him again.

But he shouldn't wait for them here.

It was night, the breeze was cold and Hiccup was still partially submerged in water, he wouldn't be warming up here and Toothless didn't want to risk anything.

Raising his head, Toothless began his search for shelter. There wasn't much he could see from his position, but at the same time, he refused to leave Hiccup's side.

Just then a Nightmare came over. It wasn't Hookfang, it was one of the dragons that had been bothering him before, one of those who'd been watching for a distance.

Also a male, he was taken aback by the human's sudden revival as well. It creeped him out to stare into those lifeless eyes, but saddened him as well. He could see the agony inside.

Hiccup's lips moved, he attempted to form words, but nothing coherent left. Nothing left at all. And moving, no matter how hard he tried, was still beyond him.

Hushing him, Toothless rumbled reassurances and pressed their noses and then their cheeks together. Hiccup gasped, closing his eyes. At least he knew his dragon was here for him. He couldn't see a thing, but he knew.

It wasn't until Hiccup calmed a little that Toothless could face the Nightmare.

There was a cave not too far away, that is what he told him. A safe cave protected from the wind where the Night Fury and the human could rest.

He helped the Night Fury get him on his back, Hiccup found that his body still didn't listen to him. And he hated it.

His memory was blurry, he could barely see, his thoughts were a frantic and jumbled mess, he was both numb and in pain, he couldn't speak. He wanted to cry out of pure fright and frustration, but nothing happened.

And then Toothless was bringing him to a cave.

He was so confused. He just wanted to be home where he was safe and where everything made sense.

The trip to the cave didn't last for too long, the Nightmare had led them to one that wasn't far from the beach, and having no cold winds assaulting his body already did miracles for the human.

Then the dragons lowered him again. They were careful, but even so his frozen joints protested. Hiccup curled onto his side once he could feel the stone ground beneath him again and Toothless settled around him.

They didn't need a fire, the Night Fury's heat would warm him up slowly.

The Monstrous Nightmare left. Hiccup wasn't sure where he was going, but he took off into the night sky.

He took it upon himself to find their packmates.

Toothless hid him from the world after the kind dragon disappeared from sight. Hiccup still felt bone-chilling against his warm hide, but he didn't dare pull away.

He shivered and Hiccup couldn't lean in as close as he wanted to, but Toothless was there. He felt like he missed him, though he didn't quite know why.

"Ssss-"

"Tss-"

"Hmm... Too-ooth?"

They weren't stutters, Hiccup was straining himself, trying to force his unwilling tongue and lips to form the only word that mattered to him at the moment.

The dragon didn't want him to strain himself, he crooned comfortingly as if telling him to wait, telling him that it was okay. Neither understood what was happening, but time would tell.

Hiccup shook his head, shivering.

"Tooth-less?" Hiccup looked up to him and the other gazed down at him. He moved a hand, settled it on the Night Fury's underjaw.

His Viking's eyes were still so very wrong, but there was little bit of green in them, a little bit of life. They were, quite literally, returning from the dead.

Toothless licked his cheek and Hiccup's face pulled into a grimace. Not out of disgust like he usually would, but out of discomfort. That tongue was too hot for his cold skin. And as his pale complexion regained a bit of colour, he noticed that the Dragon Rider's cheeks showed signs of severe sunburn.

There were other things he could now take note off as well, now that his thoughts were no longer solely focussed on Hiccup's apparent passing.

How Hiccup's shoulder was stuck in one certain awkward position, how the fingers of his right hand remained limp, how his breathing was a wheezy rattling, how he actually looked much thinner than he normally already did.

Gods, he needed to see Gothi. Urgently. He needed a warm bed, he needed food and proper water. He needed home.

But until then...

Toothless wasn't sure what was going on, whether the Viking Gods were behind this miracle or the dragons of old were to be thanked for this gift, but he wasn't about to question Hiccup's return.

He was in pain, he was cold, he was confused and scared, but he was also alive. That is what truly mattered to the Night Fury. So instead of questioning whoever or whatever was behind his Rider's revival or what it meant, Toothless embraced Hiccup with his forelegs and with his wings. And Hiccup, as a result, curled up within the warmth that he craved.


End file.
